The War Against Withers
by EnderSteve
Summary: Minecraftia is under severe attack from a Wither army! Several people try their bast to save their land! Will they succeed? This story is in chronological order.
1. Attack on Icaria

The War Against Withers: Chapter 1: Attack on Icaria

Location: 1500 blocks north-east of Icaria

Time: 18022

15639 Day/Night cycle

1572 Block Years

Character: Ender Steve

Ender Steve had his Ender wizard's staff balanced in his lap, stuffing a piece of pork chop into his mouth. The sun now dipped below the horizon and a red glow like a blood stained river flowed across the sky. A light wind whispered through his camp and chilled the air. Dark clouds rumbled through the sky, there was a smell of rain in the air. He patiently waited.

His men sat around him, finding some sort of business to soak up time. They were bored. Some were testing their bow, others drawing with a stick on the ground or forming random patterns on a crafting table. Many campfires were lit up to keep the warmth.

The moon was now rising and dinner was cooked up on a bonfire. "What do we have tonight?" he asked the chef.

"Mushroom Stew, as always," he said sadly. "If we really start fighting, then we probably only get stale bread."

Ender Steve sat down on a log and drank the stew. His men were still bored and he decided to tell them of his past experiences. He walked up onto a stone platform and cleared his throat and drew his soldier's attention.

"I am half Ender. Before all this invasion of the Withers thing happened, I was an Endermen hunter. I used to collect precious Ender pearls and sell them or make them into Eyes of Ender. One fateful night, an Endermen caught me unprepared and I received this deep gash on my torso. After a few days, I began having a high fever. I thought I was going to die, but I eventually recovered. I thought I was fine, but then my skin began to turn black. It covered half of me, and my right eye turned into this emerald colour. I don't know why it turned into this, as Endermens' eyes are purple."

He finished telling his past story and stepped off. His men seemed to have recovered and went to sleep while some kept guard. Ender Steve was also very tired and curled up in his blanket. He could not help his eyelids closing and soon was asleep.

Ender Steve woke up with a start. It seemed to still be in the middle of the night. An alarmed voice from the outpost brought everyone's attention. "Commander! The Withers are coming, everyone be careful!" the voice screamed in panic.

Suddenly everyone seemed to do the exact same thing, waking up, picking up swords, scrambling for arrows, putting on armour and packing food into their pockets. Ender Steve made out a dark line in the distance enlarging by the second. He slowly got up and picked up his staff. "Everyone!" I know all of you very well and know that we have been in these sorts of situation before! I also believe that you know every battle is important! This is a war to protect our land. I know that you will definitely try your best to protect it! We will guard Minecraftia to the very end!" he shouted on top of his voice.

His army roared and gave cheers! "Lets go," he said this softly, but it seemed to have an electric effect on his army. Soon they were all charging towards the dark line full of Withers and their minions.

The armies soon clashed together, pushing into a bloody mess. Weapons collided together and blows were parried. All they could see were lines of Wither Skeletons. Warriors from both sides fell in clans. Ender Steve had to admit, that, even though his army was greater in number, the Wither Skeletons had the advantage of strength and health. Before his opponents could get a chance, he ordered a wave of arrows to be fired. His brave archers pulled back their bows and released.

A huge cloud to arrows rained down on the Wither army, instantly killing and injuring many. His army cheered in triumph and rushed forward to engage their enemies. There was a mad attack of their swords, which brought many Withers down. The Withers wavered, threatening to break, but soon clumped together and took the chance of a counterattack.

Ender Steve's soldiers fell in massive numbers and were pushed back. "No, I can't lose anymore lives, not on the face of my late wife and son" he thought in his head. With a mad rush, he uttered a spell. "/spawn Iron Golem 10!" Instantly a crowd of Iron protectors fell from above and started to crash through the enemy lines. Spawning Mobs took strength off him, and he bent down to take a break.

A Wither Skeleton crept up behind Ender Steve, but he noticed early enough, spun around and struck the creature with his staff, slicing its body in half. Blood splattered everywhere. He suddenly saw the dark outline of a flying object high above in the sky; he thought it was a Wither. Ender Steve flew using magic and fired a beam of energy towards the creature. It hit it in the middle head and exploded. The Wither roared and began to fly towards him. He dodged and cut its disgusting black back. Ender Steve thought that he could win easily and underestimated the Wither. This was a massive mistake.

Before he could react; three incredibly large Wither heads came flying towards him. They were way too fast for him to dodge and would all strike him. His life flashed before his eyes.


	2. Siege on Stoneholm

The War Against Withers: Chapter 2: Siege on Stoneholm

Meanwhile at the Dwarven City of Stoneholm, West Gate

Character: Honeydew

CRASH! A dead Wither Skeleton flew into a pile of rubble so hard that it left an imprint. Honeydew held his Spiked Mace tight, looking in all directions to see if there were any more enemies. He saw some Dwarves struggling to defend themselves and rushed over to help.

He threw his mace across the courtyard, it hit an enemy in its head and snapped its neck, and it fell backwards onto the floor with blood rushing out like a stream. After more fighting, kills, more blood everywhere and smashed walls, Honeydew and his Dwarven companions finally cleared Stoneholm's West Gate from falling. He tugged onto his long ginger beard and took a brief rest, taking some ale from a smashed up barrel. Dwarves lay exhausted on the stone floor. The whole place was an absolute mess. Although it was a siege, Honeydew didn't expect their defences to loosen up so quickly. They needed reinforcements, or Stoneholm would be taken in less than three days.

A rather-still energetic female Dwarf archer came to report the battle situation. "Sir, the North Gate's condition is stabilizing. All other gates have been temporarily secured. We should hold off those bastard Withers for some time" she said. "Anyway, be might wan…" before she could finish speaking, a dark arrow flew from outside the city wall straight into her neck. Blood spilled all over Honeydew's face. The Dwarf died immediately.

Honeydew clenched his fists. Battle rage was boiling inside him. He grabbed his mace and roared at the sky. Suddenly, a wave of arrows flew into their city. He quickly stood his ground, blocked some arrows and climbed up the stairs leading to the defensive positioned wall. Two Dwarves were still on there, frantically firing arrows at the enemy lines with little effect. "Where in the hole are the TNT launchers, boys?" Honeydew shouted. "They're over there. S…sir, there are TNT and Flint and Steels, but w…we don't have any water" one of the Dwarves replied, he was panicking. "That can be fixed easily!" said Honeydew and formed a spell in this mouth and said it loud and clear, "/give Honeydew Water Bucket 4!" Water Buckets fell from the sky and suddenly he was holding them. He threw 2 at one Dwarf and 2 at another. "Bring the four of them to work!" he shouted.

The Dwarves hurried over and spilled the water into the launchers as well as grabbing TNT from nearby chests. The Withers were nearly on the city now.

Honeydew's heart pounded fiercely.

The Dwarves put the requirements into the launchers.

The Withers were close to the city gates.

The Dwarves lit it with their flint and steels.

The Withers were preparing to attack the city.

All launchers fired simultaneously.

A wave of explosions took toll of their enemies, pushing them back. Honeydew roared in triumph. The Dwarves were about to put in more when two dark swords emerging from below the wall caught one Dwarf in the leg and threw him off his defensive position.

Honeydew noticed and was about to stop whoever did it when, a Wither Skeleton that was somewhat different to the others jumped up high into the air brought his sword, no, swords upon Honeydew. Honeydew blocked and their weapons collided with sparks flying off. He stared into the Wither's dark, hollow eyes while it stared into his hazel, large ones.

Honeydew was surprised to hear the Wither say, "I am Wither Two Swords, commander of this army, who are you?"

"I'm Honeydew, king of the Dwarves" Honeydew replied.

"King? Hahahaha! A _real_ king wouldn't be this weak!" it chuckled.

Honeydew calmed himself down, as he knew that one false move could send him up to the Aether. Changing the subject, he look at the Wither Skeleton's two long blades and said calmly

"I see how you received your name of 'Two Swords, ' Wither man."

"Ah, yes, I always fight with two beautifully crafted dark swords. You always gain the upper hand if you have more weapons. I will be the winner here" Wither Two Swords replied.

Following this, he leaped up and brought a blow to Honeydew's abdomen. The Dwarven King successfully parried the Wither Skeleton's blow with his mace and an invisible force blew them apart.

"No, you have the better chance of winning if your weapons are heavier" Honeydew thought this and grinned. "I will be winning this match."


	3. A Beacon of Hope

The War Against Withers: Chapter 3: A Beacon of Hope

A few hours ago at Verigan's Hold

Character: Verigan Antioch II (Knight Peculiar)

Knight Peculiar sat on an armchair gazing at the vast desert in the front of him. Templar Adaephon passed away a few years ago after the great war with Israphel and now only he and Professor Webley Grizwold stayed at Verigan's Hold to monitor the growth of the desert.

Professor Webley passed him a piece of newspaper. He stretched it out and started to read. "_Many locations of Minecraftia are under attack. Many forces have been ordered by the lord Notch to defend their land. Despite many efforts, a lot casualties have occurred and, if there are no effective way to defend our land against the Wither army, more people will die and this land will fall._" the newspaper read.

Knight Peculiar ripped the newspaper apart and threw it on the floor.

"For Notch's sake, isn't there any way to stop them?" he screamed. Professor Webley gave a long sigh.

"Leader, we are old and feeble, you are not as strong as you used to be after you fell in that radioactive lava. Joining the army now would mean certain death," said Webley.

"But can't we do anything?" snapped the old Knight. "Years ago, I was a very respected man of this land and now…I have no right to be called a knight anymore."

Knight Peculiar closed his eyes and sat back on his chair. Webley kept silent. He knew the knight well and knew that whenever he closes his eyes in an emergency situation, he was thinking of a way out.

Knight Peculiar was racing through his memory, thinking of something important that someone told him. After a long wait, he suddenly snapped his eyes open and leaped off his chair.

"We're going," he told Webley.

"Going? Where are we going?" asked Webley.

"The Tomb of the Templar Kings," replied the knight. He was getting more and more excited. Webley has never seen his like this.

"Why? What? How, err, what do you mean?" Webley was confused.

The Knight went over to chests and grabbed many adventuring supplies. "When I was young and taken into Adaephon's care, he showed me The Tomb of the Templar Kings. At the time, it just was finishing construction. That's when he pointed at a door and said: there is the whole history of Minecraftia beyond that door. There are also ways to recover from natural disasters in there. Do not open it unless the world is in peril, okay?" said the Knight. "So, I'm thinking that it may have records of Wither and Wither Skeleton attacks in there and how to save the world from it."

"Ah, I see, there is still hope, isn't there," replied Webley.

Knight Peculiar was getting more and more energetic and excited. He had a full set of Iron Armour on, a bow, a full stack of arrows, pockets full of potions and food and, his beloved Iron sword that his father gave him as well as some tools.

Webley was barely dressed when Knight Peculiar was at the North Gate of the Hold. "I brought a map, a clock and a compass," said Webley.

"Good, they'll come in handy, lets go!" shouted the Knight.

They took a trek into the desert. The Tomb of the Templar Kings was far from Verigan's Hold. They camped under the stars, battled monsters of the night, and discussed the possibilities of saving their land for three days and three nights until they reached the area where the tomb was hidden from sight.

The Knight dug away a block of sand, which revealed a pressure, pad. He stood on it and waited. A few seconds later, a cliff wall opened up and they ran towards it. The tomb was a deep, but yet shallow hole that led to many chambers where deceased Templars were buried. Dim torches only lighted the place, as it was believed that brighter torches would disturb the spirits of the Templars. People had to walk softly and not run inside. Walls were dry and small streams of sand often flowed down from above.

"But this is an emergency! Surely they will forgive me if they see that the world is in peril!" thought Knight Peculiar and he darted down the entrance with Webley close behind him. They kept running until they reached the bottom. A pair of smooth Iron doors lay in front of them. "Lever!" said Knight Peculiar to Webley. The Professor dug up one from his pockets and gave it to the Knight.

Knight Peculiar quickly placed the lever beside the door and flicked it down. The door opened. He took a deep breath and stepped inside, sword in hand and bow in the other.


	4. A Tool Better Than a Weapon

The War Against Withers: Chapter 4: A Tool Better Than a Weapon

Now lets see what happened with Honeydew and Wither Two Sword's battle in Stoneholm three days ago.

Wither Skeletons were already entering the Dwarven city of Stoneholm. Honeydew wanted to stop them, but Wither Two Swords held him back.

"Arrrrrrrrrrr!" screamed Honeydew in frustration as he swang his Spiked Mace has hard as he can towards the Wither Skeleton commander's head. "He's the commander of this army, so, if I can take him out, we will win this battle," thought Honeydew as he parried a blow from one of Two Sword's sword. "But how?" he thought. The Wither Skeleton was about the same strength as he was and they both had to think many moves ahead. Honeydew thought of outlasting the stamina of his opponent, but that'll take too long and even if he succeeded, Two Sword's minions would of likely already taken the city.

The fight has now gone for about half an hour already and Honeydew was desperate to think of something. For some reason no Dwarves seemed to notice. Maybe they were too busy having their own battle going on. "In this case," thought Honeydew, "I'll just have to deal final blows whenever I have the chance."

The fight went on, a very heavy blow to Wither Two Sword's chest plate caused the first injury, and it dented it. Honeydew was sure that it hurt the creature, but there was no blood. "I should've enchanted my armour and my Spiked Mace!" snapped Honeydew in his head.

The second injury occurred after Two Swords tried to cut Honeydew very quickly, swinging one of his swords like a whip. Honeydew managed to step aside, but it bounced off his wrist after colliding with his shield there but hurt him by causing pain to the muscle below.

Honeydew thought of using magic to spawn a golem or something, but using magic would take some strength away, and if it failed to defeat, or at least injure his enemy, he would be in real trouble. "What if I spawn in some sort of…item," thought Honeydew. Items and blocks do not take any strength away. "Watch are you doing? Focus!" shouted Two Swords as he made Honeydew deal with another blow. He barely managed to block this. The force sent his Spiked Mace flying; he was in trouble now.

He'd have to spawn something in! Life or death depends on this. "Surrender?" asked Two Swords.

"Never in the word of Notch!" cried Honeydew.

"Then face the consequences," exclaimed Two Swords. He leapt off the ground and brought his weapon upon Honeydew, but he jumped aside.

Honeydew calmed down. His breath slowed and it was as if time stopped. He didn't hear or see Two Swords charge at him. He simply stood there and uttered a spell under his breath "/give Honeydew Lava Bucket 1."

As soon as the tool appeared in his hand, he crouched down and poured it on the cobblestone block below him and jumped aside. Wither Two Swords didn't have the time to react, he was also very tired and simply charged into the lava and started burning.

"Argggghhhhhhhh" Two Swords roared. "How dare you…argggghhhhhhh!"

Honeydew collapsed onto the cobblestone below him. Soon the Wither Skeleton was no more than a pile of ashes. He'd won. He didn't do anything; he simply lay there, exhausted and soon was unconscious.

Some time later, he found himself waking up in a bed; Dwarves surrounded him. He asked, "What happened? Where am I?" The Dwarves were very excited. "We've won, sir! You defeated the commander of their army and now all the Wither Skeleton's are retreating, Commander Rory has ordered some of our guys to go after them," they explained.

"Is a feast prepared?" asked Honeydew.

"Of course sir! Do you think we can forget that? We've got every food possible in the world and gallons of ale! Your achievement is one for the Dwarven history!" One of them replied.

"Lets go and eat the whacking feast!" shouted Honeydew.

"Not so fast!" Shouted someone at the door.

"Rory Rockhammer!" exclaimed Honeydew. "What in the hole is the matter with you today?"

"All those remaining Wither Skeletons have gotten on boats and are headed to Skyhold, which is already under attack," said Rory.

"Xephos…" thought Honeydew.

"Skyhold is only defended weakly by a few people, we need people to go there and assist Xephos and the other leaders," continued Rory.

"Alright then, lets go!" shouted Honeydew. He tried to get up, but his body ached so much that it forced him to lie down again. "Ouch!"

"Sir, your battle with Two Swords has put tonnes of strain onto your body. Therefore, please permit I and Moira Magmabloom to go ahead and protect Skyhold with the other leaders," said Rory.

"Go ahead, when I recover, I'll come as well," replied Honeydew.

"Sir, someone needs to guard Stoneholm, please stay behind," said Rory.

"Whatever," grumbled Honeydew.

Rory Rockhammer hurried out the door. "Nearly all the places in Minecraftia are under attack. Will this land really survive this disaster?" thought Honeydew.


	5. Arrival at Diamond City

The War Against Withers: Chapter 5: Arrival at Diamond City

The next day, on a route to Diamond City

Character: Ender Steve

Ender Steve was lying on his back. The Ender warrior opened his eyes, blinked, and attempted to figure out where he was. He was still together, body, head, arms, legs, all good. He felt as if he was in something that was moving along. There were curtains blocking sunlight and a curtain door in front of him. He looked to the left, then to the right of him. His Wizard's Staff was still near him. All good, but where was he?

Just as he was thinking about getting up, a female Minecraftian walked through the curtain entrance. She was the finest woman he had ever seen besides his late wife. Ender Steve tried not to blush as she bent down and gave a shocked gasp when she saw that he was awake.

"Everyone, our commander is awake!" she shouted outside.

There was suddenly the sound of a huge commotion outside and everyone came rushing through.

"Sir, you're alive! Thank Notchness, we thought that you wouldn't make it!" one soldier exclaimed.

"Where am I and what happened?" asked Ender Steve. Questions were whirling around his head.

"This is a long story, sir. The Wither you were fighting many days ago literally blew you apart!" another soldier said.

"A few days ago? What do you mean?" continued Ender Steve.

"You've been asleep for two days, sir because of the Withering effects of those damn Wither heads!"

"Did we win?"

The soldier sighed "no sir. We lost. The Wither was too strong."

"Are most people okay?"

"No, sorry sir. When we saw you falling unconscious, be simply grabbed everything and made a run for it. Many people died, all the people outside is all that is left of our army

"Where are we?"

"Nearly at Diamond City. We'll report to lord Notch about this."

"I must get up and see the army."

His men held him up and helped him outside. Men were scarce and the situation was a grim. Ender Steve could feel the anger boiling inside him and wanted revenge for the Wither army for taking Icaria under their control. He could see Diamond City as a misty shadow in the distance. Ender Steve found himself unable to stop looking at the young woman who was behind him.

"Sir, you must thank Nurse Shona for taking care of you and giving you the ability to survive. Without her, you wouldn't have made it," exclaimed one soldier as he pointed to the beautifully young woman that he found himself attracted to.

He walked over to her, "your name is Shona? Isn't it? I express my deepest thanks for helping me."

"You're welcome. Helping the injured in my job," she replied.

Ender Steve recognised that she had a fabulous high voice. He looked into here azure eyes before making a light grin and turned back to his men.

They soon arrived in the Iron outer gate of Diamond City. Telling the guards their situation, they trotted through the Gold gate, then through the Emerald gate and finally a shimmering Diamond Gate towered before them. Ender Steve could see the diamond castle where Notch sat in his throne. The light had to make his eyes adapt to it. It was so bright.

They walked through the beautiful entrance to the throne of Notch. They ceiling was made of glowstone and paintings like the sky in heaven. They saw a figure in front of their lord Notch and recognised as the great adventurer – Steve who brought down the Ender Dragon many, many years ago.

Ender Steve bowed before his king so did the other people. "My lord, I'm sorry to report that…"

Before Ender Steve could finish, Notch said, "young man, I know that you have failed your quest at Icaria. But defeat is common, isn't it?"

"We would like to send you to the living quarters. Have a rest, eat something, take a shower, and we would meet you and your army here is 5 hours," said Steve.

"Why not now?" asked Ender Steve.

"We need to test your abilities and need you fully recovered before we can do so," replied Steve.

"No worries, my lord."

Ender Steve bowed again and left with all his people. Soon they were at a tall fancy building. They tiredly walked through the entrance and occupied a room each. Ender Steve had a normal room like everyone else. He didn't want to do anything. He just simply flopped into bed and fell asleep.

He blinked several times before suddenly awaking. Nurse Shona was sitting on a chair nearby. "Why…why are you in here?" inquired Ender Steve.

"I saw you tumbling all over and came in to see what happened. Just for your safety. Did you have a bad dream?"

Ender Steve remembered what he dreamt about. "Oh, I saw my wife dying in a pile of rubble," he said sadly.

"Don't worry, it's only a dream," she said.

"By the way, I saw you staring at me earlier with your interested eyes. Did you by chance find a rose in a garden of thorns?" she teased.

"Err…that…I…I…"

"How did she know?" thought Ender Steve.

She chuckled. "Would you care to have a wash before dining and returning to Notch? You don't smell too good."

"No worries," said Ender Steve as he found a new set of clothes and went into the bathroom, firmly closing the door behind him and hoping that Shona would not come in. He was sure that she was attracted to him as well.


	6. On the Verge of Death

The War Against Withers: Chapter 6: On the Verge of Death

Location: Diamond City

Character: Ender Steve

The Ender hero finished bathing, put on his clothes and returned outside to Shona. "What time is it?" he asked.

"We have 1 and a half hours until we have to meet Notch," she replied.

"Alright then." Ender Steve paused for a moment and said, "Do you want to dine with me?"

"Sure, I will," said Shona.

They walked out the door and headed downstairs. They sat looking at each other at a beautiful iron table. There were not many people around. The waiter brought them some chicken and wine; they started eating. Ender Steve was ravenous; he devoured a lot of the food while Shona sat there looking at him.

Ender Steve finished swallowing a mouthful of wine and met his gaze with Shona's. After a long silence, he whispered, "Has anyone ever told you that you look gorgeous?"

"A few, but I had no feelings for them, unlike you," she said.

Ender Steve could not help but blush. His face went red like an apple and a tight knot formed in his throat.

They soon finished eating and waited for their soldiers to assemble. From there, they marched out the front gate and looked towards the Diamond castle. The sunset was settling over it. With his soldiers and Shona by his side, they marched towards it. Ender Steve did not know what awaited them. He heard Steve say before that it would be 'a test of his abilities', but he did not know what he meant. Pedestrians moved aside to let them pass.

After about half an hour of walking to the castle, they arrived in time. As the guards let them enter, they saw Steve in full armour. But what sort of armour was it? Ender Steve had never seen such armour in his life. It was made of large dark scales covering his whole body except for his face. On his back was a long black cloak. The armour gave Ender Steve the chills every time he saw them. Could this be 'the test'?

Ender Steve tightened his grip on his staff as he neared Steve and Notch, who had a calm face on his throne. "You have come," he said. "Steve will give you a challenge to see the limit of your abilities. I would like your soldiers to stay and witness the event.

"Are you ready?" inquired Steve with a stern face.

"Yes," replied Ender Steve as he held his staff tight and stretched his legs apart to block any sort of blow.

Ender Steve knew that Steve was very strong, maybe twice as strong as him. But his wizard's staff is protected by spells and does not break. "If I can hold him off for sometime, the duel might stop," he thought. He suddenly noticed something wrong. Steve had no weapons! He was bare handed!

"How is he going to fight like this?" Ender Steve thought to himself.

As he focused his view towards Steve, he shrieked and gasped, and then he gulped. His army followed soon after. Fire was generating from Steve palms! The lifted into the air and swirled around, brightening everything in the room. Ender Steve simply could not believe it. Was it some type of powerful magic? Although he was an expert magic user in all of Minecraftia, he had never seen anything like the magic that Steve was using. Ender Steve was even more flabbergasted to see that the fire had now travelled to Steve's upper arm!

Steve shouted, "Fire Missile," and he pointed his arms towards Ender Steve.

A massive wave of flames like a bullet surged towards Ender Steve. The flames nearly consumed him as he merely has the time to dodge it. His soldiers were so terrified that they could not speak. Only Shona remained moderately cool. "Don't lose, leader!" she shouted.

The shouts of Shona seemed to give new strength to Ender Steve. He hadn't even tried to attack Steve yet, and now is the time. He pointed his staff towards Steve. The top of his weapon shone of a green colour. He somehow felt a weird feeling in his head, but he ignored it. As he felt that his attack was ready, the Ender claw on top of the staff opened up and several splash potions flied out.

To his surprise, Steve already had a bucket of milk in his hand and when the potions hit him, he simply drunk the whole bucket.

"Potions of poison. Nothing to worry about," exclaimed Steve. "Do you know how I knew you were going to do that? I can read minds, so the weird feeling that you experienced inside your head was I reading your mind."

"A mind reader…" thought Ender Steve. "Only the top of the top magicians can do it. How can I defeat him?"

Before he could think of anything, Steve shouted, "Sand Crusher!"

A huge ball if sand fell from the ceiling, Steve was trying to suffocate him! Ender Steve just had the time to raise his staff towards the falling sand. The sand seemed to hit something invisible and many of them flew somewhere else. "Lucky they were easy to move," thought Ender Steve.

As he was about to look for Steve, his enemy used some sort of supersonic speed to charge his fist into Ender Steve's stomach. Ender Steve coughed up blood and stepped backwards. "Im…impossible…our strength is too much different," he thought.

Steve reached out an arm and Ender Steve flew into a wall, collapsing the structure. Then he stretched out another arm and fire engulfed Ender Steve. Steve then used magic to drag him out but instead smashed him onto the floor, leaving an imprint.

Ender Steve had a broken ribcage, a broken leg, and a broken arm and was burnt badly. He was dying. He couldn't even breathe. Memory flashed in his head. A child being born; growing up; getting an occupation as an Enderman killer. Being infected by some sort of illness and turning half Enderman. Marrying someone; crying at her grave; joining the army and helping to fight the Withers…

The vision ended. Ender Steve's heart stopped pumping and he was on the verge of death. The last thing he remembered was Shona by his side and her tears flowing onto his face.


	7. Speechless Anger

The War Against Withers: Chapter 7: Speechless Anger

Meanwhile at Skyhold

Character: Xephos

Xephos and Skylord Vitellius stood back to back on Skyhold's mainland, cutting down waves of Wither Skeletons. All of the people hadn't slept for two days and were enormously tired. Luckily they could use magic to relieve the stress. Xephos, Lomadia, Skylord Lysander, Skylord Jasper and three new recruited Skylords – Vitellius, Cottrell and Khambaita only defended Skyhold. Xephos knew that they couldn't let Skyhold fall; otherwise Minecraftia would really be in peril.

No soldiers were allowed in Skyhold, as they were not trustworthy, so a few elite people only defended the mid air base. In order to repel the attacks from all directions, Xephos had to send his warriors to different trials and locations. Xephos, Skylord Vitellius and Skylord Khambaita defended the mainland. Cottrell defended the Trial of Fire. Lysander defended the Trial of Ice whilst Lomadia defended the Trial of Life. Jasper defended the Landing Platform to the south.

The army of Wither Skeletons seemed to be endless. Xephos had sent out an emergency reinforcement letter everywhere into Minecraftia a few days ago. Someone must know that they need assistance now. After more cutting and blood everywhere, the waves of the Wither Skeletons seemed to have stabilized on the mainland. Xephos looked at his clock. It was nearly noon.

"It's about time to report our situation" Xephos said to Skylord Khambaita.

Khambaita gave a sigh of relief as she dug into his pocket for a signal flare.

"What colour?" she asked.

"Yellow," replied a faraway voice. It was Vitellius. She had blood trickling down her face and dented golden armour.

Khambaita nodded and fired the flare before turning to Vitellius and sighing.

"Every time I keep telling you to wear some type of stronger armour and you never listen!" grumbled Khambaita.

"My favourite colour _is _gold!" argued Vitellius.

"Enough! Vitellius, go into the safe house and get a new pair of armour. You won't last much longer in that," said Xephos.

Vitellius complied and headed to the living quarters. Suddenly, four signal flares fired up from each location. The trio gazed at them.

The Trial of Fire, yellow.

The Trial of Ice, orange.

Landing Platform, yellow.

The Trial of Life, red.

"Red!?" shouted Xephos. His companions gasped.

"That means that Lomadia _needs_ immediate help!" exclaimed Khambaita.

"You two stay here, I'll go!" said Xephos as he started running to the Trial of Life.

A second red signal flare rose from there. Xephos' heart pounded. "She won't die here," he thought. "I won't let her die!"

As he neared the entrance, a third flare rose. This one was purple.

"No…a purple one? Am I dreaming?" thought Xephos. "A purple one means that someone is severely injured and the flare is only used in extreme cases!"

Enraged, Xephos barged through lines of Wither Skeletons, there was sure a lot. "Don't die," he kept thinking. As he rushed out into the open, he saw Lomadia bloodied and lying on the floor, she seemed to have cast a protection spell onto her armour before she fell. Wither Skeletons madly swung their swords at her, creating dents in her armour. Xephos saw that it was about to break. He tried to rush to her, but something terrifying from below Skyhold rose into the sky. A scarlet shield surrounded the body; dark hollow eyes gave you the chills. The beast stared at Xephos with its three large heads. A Wither was here.

The Wither's minions backed off as the Wither shot three smoking heads at the unconscious Lomadia. Xephos jumped and attempted to push her aside, but it was too late. The heads exploded upon hitting her and the armour shattered. She was sent into the air and hit the ground with a dull thud. Xephos simply could not believe what was happening. The most intense anger was building inside him.

He jumped at a pack of Wither Skeletons and slashed them apart. He jumped at another pack, ignoring the Wither Heads sent by the Wither towards him. His diamond sword caught a Wither Skeleton in the neck and Xephos severed its head. He took his blade towards three other Wither Skeletons, slicing them in half.

Just then, a Wither Head flying towards him exploded on his back. It seemed to have paralysed him. Xephos could not feel any pain for tiredness.

"Oh no, the Wither effect," he thought. Xephos scrambled for a bucket of milk. He could not find any. What was he going to do? Was this the end of him?

Just then, Skylord Cottrell and Skylord Lysander burst out and were stunned when they saw the Wither. The Wither was focused on Xephos and didn't have the time to react. Lysander jumped high into the air and brought his iron sword onto the Wither's middle head. His weapon seemed to have bounced off, but it caused pain to the Wither. He then took another opportunity and cut the Wither on its body. It howled in pain and retreated down from Skyhold.

Meanwhile, Cottrell fed Xephos a bucket of milk before noticing Lomadia. He rushed over to her after Xephos regained conscious. Xephos woke and he went over to Lomadia, and so did Lysander.

"How…how is she?" asked Xephos.

Cottrell fed her a potion of health. "I don't know if she'll make it, we'll have to get her to the medical quarters, she is too seriously injured to be healed by a potion straight away."

"Please heal her," said Xephos. "Please, I don't want her to die."

"I'll try my best," replied Cottrell.

Xephos could feel his chest tightening up; he loved Lomadia secretly. He couldn't let her die. But, for now, they had to defend Skyhold.


	8. Minecraftia's Fate

The War Against Withers: Chapter 8: Minecraftia's Fate

Knight Peculiar and Professor Webley Grizwold travelled through the desert towards The Tomb of The Templar Kings for three days. Many things happened for these three days such as Honeydew securing Stoneholm, Ender Steve arriving in Diamond City and a battle at Skyhold. They had now reached the iron doors at the end of the corridor and Knight Peculiar had gone in. 

Knight Peculiar cautiously stepped in with Webley close behind him. They placed several torches down. They were in a room completely full of bedrock with a low ceiling. There was an iron door at the end of the room with a stone pressure pad in front of it. Seeing no obvious danger, Webley was just about to go trotting forward onto the pressure pad when Knight Peculiar stopped him.

"We don't know what's waiting for us. There could be hidden danger," said Knight Peculiar.

"There doesn't seem to be any danger," replied Webley.

"Now watch me and learn," said the Knight.

He crept forward and stopped before the pressure pad and, using his pickaxe, dug one block down. He jumped a mile when he saw that it was a trap.

"Holy Notch it's TNT!" he yelled.

"What?!" screamed Webley.

"That's not good. Give me a lever."

Webley gave him a lever and the Knight placed it next to the door. "There shouldn't be any danger now," he said and flicked the switch down.

The iron door opened with a creak and they both silently stepped in. This room was also made of bedrock. They gasped when they saw that there was another trap. In this room, there were lines of pressure pads in the distance. There were dispensers on the sides.

"How are we going to do this one?" asked Webley.

Knight Peculiar kept silent for a few seconds and said, "there are gaps between each pressure pad, and so if we avoid them, we should be fine."

They crouched down and started to make their way across the room. The dispensers were too far to reach so they didn't think about taking the weapons inside. The room was about 30 blocks long and 20 blocks wide. After taking sometime, they finally neared the other end. Webley was too excited and accidently stepped on a pressure pad. A fire charge fired out from a dispenser and made Webley go up in flames. He jumped to the other end of the room and before he started to burn.

"P…Peculiar…" he shouted.

Knight Peculiar grabbed a bucket of water and poured it over his friend. The fire was extinguished. "Be careful next time," he said.

"I will, thankyou," replied Webley.

Above the iron door was a lever. "Should I pull it?" asked Webley.

"Go ahead."

Webley flicked the switch and waited. The door opened and they were now in the next room. This room was filled with platforms of rocks above a pool of lava. There was also an iron door at the end of the room with a lever above it.

"Oh great, jumping puzzles!" grumbled Webley.

There was a short silence. Knight Peculiar suddenly went ahead and placed a dirt block on the edge and made a pathway to the first platform.

"Good one, friend!"

They placed blocks to make a bridge and soon they were at the other end of the room.

"That wasn't as hard as I expected," said the Knight, grinning.

In the next room, there was simply a diamond block with a button on it. There didn't seem to be any traps. They walked in front of it and examined their surroundings.

"This is not a good sign," exclaimed Webely.

"We have to press it. Be ready for anything," said Knight Peculiar and pressed the button.

The two heroes were right. It _was _a trap. All sides of the room opened up and an iron door was found at the end, but on the two sides, there were monsters of the night, which spawned in monster spawners. There were Creepers, Zombies, Skeletons and Spiders. They both pulled out their swords and got into a fighting pose. Webley slashed first, sidestepping a Spider and stabbing a Zombie in its throat. Knight Peculiar swung his head and dodged a Skeleton's arrow before he knocked a Creeper about to explode into a pack of Spiders, killing many of them.

"We have to put torches on the spawners!" the Knight yelled above the horrid noises.

After even more fighting, dead mobs on the ground and a foul smell of blood, they finally secured the place and went for the iron door. It was opened, exposing yet another room.

"How many puzzles do we have to do?" screamed a frustrated Webley. This room was also full of pressure pads. It had a low ceiling made of sand.

"I think that if we stepped onto a pressure pad, the sand would fall and we would suffocate to death," said Knight Peculiar. They were especially careful with this puzzle, and eventually made it through to the next one.

They completed several dangerous, mind twisting and incredible puzzles before coming to an Obsidian wall.

"Here goes," sighed Knight Peculiar before he broke the wall with his pickaxe and finding a room inside.

"This room may hold Minecraftia's fate," he said.

He stepped in and saw a small chest at the end of the room. The room was simple smooth stone. There was nothing special about it. He and Webley quietly made their way to the chest. Knight Peculiar opened it and looked inside. There was nothing. Just as he was about to turn to Webley, the floor opened up and they fell through.


	9. The Promise

**Author's Note (temporary):**** Hey fans (I have like…only 4 followers XD) (and readers), sorry for all the wait I was very busy ****watching videos of the Yogscast and going on Yogscast Wiki (you might be able to find me there)**** and now it's the holidays over here so I get a brief break because my ****WIFI is off**** but my writing device ****does not require WIFI**** so I decided to start writing again so anyway hope you enjoy this so far I will be ****writing again in probably a month**** I'm very busy especially **_**complaining Wither Skeletons**_** keep coming to my house in Minecraftia and say that ****I'm offending their race**** (I probably am a bit) but anyway I got my ****armour and sword**** (torn leather armour and blunt wooden sword) and life goes on but hey they are banging down my door again I got to run away this is the ****sixth**** house of mine they will be destroying so bye bye I don't know why this has no full stops but anyway I got to go.**

The War Against Withers: Chapter 9: The Promise

Character: EnderSteve

Location: Diamond City

The last time we saw EnderSteve, he was fighting for his life. What will happen now?

Shona could not believe what was happening. Steve had just critically injured one of the necessary people in defending Minecraftia against the army of Withers. Enraged, she picked herself up and charged towards Steve, uttering curses. Steve ignored it, and simply sidestepped her. He slowly advanced towards EnderSteve before Shona stood in front of him, holding a dagger.

"Get past me first if you want to touch EnderSteve!" she screamed.

"If you want your leader healed, get out of my way," said Steve in a dangerously soft voice.

"I can heal him alone!" Shona cried before heading to EnderSteve and feeding him a potion of health. There was an eager wait by both Shona and EnderSteve's men. However, it seemed to do little effect.

"If you want your leader healed, get out of my way," repeated Steve.

When Shona refused, Steve managed to push her out of the way and sat by EnderSteve's side. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a potion. Notch patiently waited on his throne. Everyone else thought it was going to be a health or regeneration potion, but instead it was one that was totally unique.

The potion showed all colours of the rainbow, flashing red before it dimmed to orange, then to yellow, and so on. It also seemed to boil of bubbles. It was as it something very powerful inside was trying to get out and escape. Steve held the potion to EnderSteve's lips and slowly trickled the liquid down his throat. They didn't wait long.

The effects were incredible. Dry blood evaporated, wounds disappeared and a warm light embraced EnderSteve's skin. After a while, he squinted his eyes open and questioned, "Is this the Aether? Have I died?"

Shona immediately gave him lung crushing hug and his men rushed over to see his situation. After confirming that he was fine, they turned to Steve.

"What potion was that?" a man asked.

"Why did you do that to our leader?" another questioned.

The whole room buzzed with voices like a crowd of news reporters.

Steve whispered "quiet please," the room fell silent then.

"Let me explain," he started. "EnderSteve belongs to a particular race of interest and is likely the only one of that race. The race has no real name but is half Endermen and half Minecraftian.

They have some unique features as well. For example, they can survive longer without food, have more energy and live longer. They can look at an Endermen and not provoke it. But now is the downside, they can't swim as fast.

The most interesting thing is; they get a massive boost of experience if they survive after being critically injured, which I just did to him. But if they know that they definitely will get injured, the boost of experience doesn't work properly.

The potion I gave to him to heal him is the last one that can be ever made. It required extreme magic skills to get one, which means that we have very high expectations of you, EnderSteve."

"I understand, master," replied EnderSteve.

"Very well. For the next few days I will teach you some very important magic spells. Be back here at sunrise next morning, but don't take everyone with you this time."

"What are the spells for, master?"

"Don't question. Do as you are told. You will see. Get some rest now, it's closing in on night."

"Yes master, I'll meet you tomorrow. Thankyou for boosting by experience."

Steve nodded and began to tidy up the battle arena. EnderSteve picked up his staff and walked out of the palace with his men behind him.

"I thought you were dead for sure!" remarked Shona. EnderSteve could still see tear marks on her little face.

"Don't worry. I don't die easily."

After everyone settled in the hotel, EnderSteve went to his room and sat on a chair, revising what had just happened to him. He decided to take another wash, for he was all hot and sweaty. He walked into the bathroom and disrobed. But when he looked in the mirror, he almost yelped with joy.

The potion apparently healed him so well that every past injury had vanished. Every scar, which was likely remaining forever, was gone. His skin was now as smooth as a newborn.

"Notch bless Steve, Notch bless that incredible potion as well," he muttered.

After finishing washing, he dressed up in his sleep clothes and hopped into bed before Shona came in again. She did not do much. Shona dawdled to his side and said, "promise that won't happen to you again. I almost had a heart attack. Don't die."

"I promise…" but EnderSteve was cut off as Shona pulled herself closer and pressed her lips against his. EnderSteve did not expect that at all, and at first he was tense but soon welcomed her in.

They kissed for what seemed like a million years. At last Shona said, "What will you do after your training with Steve is complete?"

"I'm going to retake Icaria" he replied.

"But you'll die!" exclaimed Shona as tears began to form in her eyes.

"No, I won't. I promise I will return. I have never broken a promise and I never will."

Following this, he uttered a mysterious spell. "This is a curse, if I die, you die, if you die, I die, so we stay together for ever. Is that good enough? If you don't like it, I can cancel it."

Shona shook her head. "No, I love this idea. Together for ever."

"Together forever," replied EnderSteve.

"Goodnight, my love," said Shona, blushing.

"Goodnight," said EnderSteve as Shona left the room and soon fell asleep, dreaming about the new training was about to face.


	10. Spaceman's Sorrow

The War Against Withers: Chapter 10: Spaceman's Sorrow

Character: Xephos

Location: Skyhold

Skyhold was under attack by Withers. Will Xephos and the Skylords be able to defend it after Lomadia could not fight anymore? 

Lomadia lay on a bed in the dormitory. Her face was as pale as a sheet of paper. Xephos and the Skylords – Lysander, Jasper, Vitellus, Juliet and Khambaita managed to secure Skyhold temporarily from the army of Withers and now they are next to Lomadia, observing her situation.

"She doesn't seem to be doing too well," exclaimed Juliet.

"I hope she doesn't die," said Vitellus. Lysander immediately grabbed him by the collar and shouted, "Don't say that!"

"Sorry, Lysander."

"There's not much we can do now. If too many Withers come, we might not be able to manage it without Lomadia," said Jasper.

An arrow suddenly flew through an open window towards them. Khambaita saw it and, as fast as lightning, wipped out her sword, blocked it, and sent it flying into the wall. They heard war cries of the Wither Skeletons and rushed outside to fight again.

Everyone rushed out except Xephos.

He just stood next to Lomadia, praying that she would be okay. After a while, Lomadia slowly opened her eyes. Xephos shrieked with excitement.

"Are you okay? You'll be fine. Don't worry," he comforted her.

She ignored it, "Look, Xephos, I won't be able to live for much longer."

She paused and coughed loudly, a fresh clot of blood exploded out of her throat, stunning Xephos and causing him to take hold of her hand and comfort her again.

"…Now, protect Skyhold at all costs, even if everyone dies. Skyhold cannot fall. I probably know Skyhold the most…it…has a central computer system that aids its propulsion. If that is…destroyed, then all hope to defend Skyhold is…lost. If that happens…use the airships to escape."

Her voice became weaker and weaker, "Promise me you will defend it at all costs. If everyone…dies and Skyhold is taken, then my death will…be…in…vain."

"I promise I'll try my best."

Lomadia nodded and slowly closed her eyelids and her hand dropped from Xephos' grasp. Xephos could not help tears to pour out of his eyes.

"Goodbye, Lomadia."

Lysander suddenly burst open the door. "Commander, the Dwarves are here!"

Lysander did not notice that Lomadia was dead, for he was too excited. Xephos picked up his sword and stepped outside. He saw a colossal clan of Dwarves, crashing through the enemy lines with ease. At the front of the clan stood a rather young Dwarf with broad shoulders that held a massive metal hammer. Xephos knew him.

"Rory Stonehammer!" exclaimed Juliet, rushing forward.

"My name is Rory Rockhammer," responded Rory, annoyed. "By Honeydew's name!" he roared to the others.

"By Honeydew's name!" they roared back.

"We have come to aid Skyhold," explained Rory. "Moira has started her invasion too on the other side of Skyhold."

"You've come too late," sighed Xephos. "Lomadia is dead!"

Everyone gaped and gasped at what Xephos just said.

"She what?!" yelled Rory.

"She's dead," repeated Xephos.

"But…but that's impossible! Lomadia is just about the one that I least expect to die at Skyhold!"

"Even look!"

Xephos led them inside to Lomadia. Xephos sobbed on a chair while Rory and the others studied the dead one.

After a while, Rory went over to Xephos and patted him on the back. "This is war. People will die; you'll have to get over it. We can bury her now, if that'll lighten your mood."

They carried Lomadia outside and dug a grave. It was a simple grave, for they did not have much time. After it was complete and with Lomadia buried, they threw some dandelions and roses on it and gave some prayers and speeches before moving away.

"The Withers…will pay for this," shouted Xephos. He was clenching his hands to hard that his knuckles turned white and his muscles were bulging. The Spaceman sprinted away and charged towards a group of Wither Skeletons, who came forward to attack him.

The first one swung his sword towards his neck, but he ducked down and stabbed it in its abdomen so hard that the Wither Skeleton virtually exploded.

The second one was a better swordsman, having dodged Xephos' blow and counterattacked with a blow that would have severed his arm if it hit. Xephos parried it and, with a clever flick of his wrist, brought his sword onto his enemy's neck and beheaded it.

The third one was only an amateur. After knocking its sword off the Wither Skeleton's grasp, Xephos yelled, "Do you give in?"

"Never!" cried the Wither in a raspy voice, which was hard to understand.

Xephos sighed and slashed it to death. "If you gave in, I wouldn't have done that."

Everyone went on different paths to overthrow the crowds of the Wither Skeletons and soon secured the area.

"We need to secure the other areas!" screamed Vitellus.

"I really hate heights. You know Dwarves don't like them. But I'll try my best," remarked Rory, running after Xephos.

"How's Honeydew?" questioned Xephos.

"He's fine," responded Rory. "Halfway here we heard that he's going to Barbeque Bay to support Isabel Peculiar, Shiplord Hubert and the other Pirates."

"Is Barbeque Bay also under attack?"

"Yes. To be honest, I'm not sure if we can really make this alive. Half the damn land is raging with war!"

"Don't worry. We have a lot of strong people alive. You must have faith in yourself."

"You're right. Lets do this!" shouted Rory as he charged towards another group of Wither Skeletons.

"Lomadia…I won't disappoint you. We can save Skyhold," thought Xephos as the sun set in the west, closing in on night.


	11. The Truth

The War Against Withers: Chapter 11: The Truth

Character: Knight Peculiar

Location: The Tomb of the Templar Kings

Knight Peculiar and Professor Webley fell down a hole the last time we saw them, what will happen now?

Knight Peculiar woke with a start.

"How long have I been unconscious for?" he asked himself.

The knight pulled him self up and woke Webley, who was next to him.

"Where do we go now?" asked Webley, still dozy.

"I don't quite think that was a trap. I think it was intended," exclaimed Knight Peculiar.

They were in a narrow tunnel leading to darkness and covered in sandstone with ancient writings on it. They navigated their way through and read the prints at the same time.

"Oh my Notch!" shouted Webley all of a sudden; he was staring at some text on the sandstone.

"My grandfather…Professor Grizwold once explored here!"

"Grizwold? I heard many rumours about him that he found some of the most important information ever available to the world but refused to tell anyone."

"Let me follow my grandfather's footsteps!" yelled an excited Webley.

After running along the tunnel for what seemed like hours, they arrived at a room with an impressive obsidian door at the end about ten blocks high and five blocks wide. A crumbling sign on it read: The Door of Justice. Put your hand on it and it will test you.

"What does that mean?" questioned Peculiar.

"I think it means that it will test if we're the bad guys or not," replied Webley, already putting his hand on it.

A blot of azure light caught Webley and disappeared along with him.

"Webley? Are you okay?" asked Knight Peculiar nervously.

No answer.

He unsheathed his sword – the once that Karpath, his father, gave to him and neared the door.

"Have you been here before, father or grandfather? If you have then let me follow your footsteps as well," he thought and touched the door.

Another beam of blue light emerged and caught him and dragged him away. It was like being caught in a gust of wind, except you flew away much faster.

"It must have teleported me!" realised Peculiar. "Must've been an early type to teleportation."

He touched down in a bright room filled with wonderful treasures. There were diamond, gold, iron, glowstone, anything that would make you rich.

But he wasn't interested in that. All he wanted to do was to find some sort of clue to save Minecraftia. He saw Webley near the wall, slowly stepping light-footed across the room and staring at something.

Peculiar immediately noticed what he was looking at. There were huge walls of text carved onto the wall!

"This must be the history of Minecraftia and the information about the races!" shouted Knight Peculiar. His heart was racing.

Webley looked back at him. "We did it."

After joining Webley, they studied the text row-by-row, column-by-column. The text was slightly hard to read, for much of it had eroded. But they could make out it after analysing it for some time.

They passed many areas explaining many subjects of their land. Dwarves, Humans, Creatures of the Night, Sun, Moon, The Nether…

Suddenly they yelped at the same time. On one sign read 'Withers'. They observed it and began to make out what it read:

_The Withers_

_The Withers are a type of mob that strangely appears and disappears in Minecraftia. We had a hard time understanding why, but after 500 years we finally found out the incredible appearance and disappearance of the creatures._

_The Withers have a homeland – a planet made entirely of soul sand. It orbits the sun and comes close to Minecraftia every approximately 500 years. If there is soul sand elsewhere, the planet will make an attraction to it and Withers will spawn on the planet that their homeland is attracted to. _

_Minecraftia has soul sand. People have mined much soul sand to aid the growth of Nether Warts for potions. People who knew this have tried to get rid of soul sand, but since the planet only passes every 500 years, it is almost certain that the later generations forget this. Therefore, they again obtain soul sand and the endless cycle continues._

_The Withers can spawn in Minecraftia for up to 5 years. During this time, they will kill many citizens and soldiers mercilessly. This only leaves, on average, one tenth of Minecraftia's population alive. When the planet leaves, the Minecraftians repopulate and gets the population upwards and rising again before the planet makes another pass. Wither-related creatures include Wither Skeletons as well as Withers._

_Many efforts have been made to try to get onto the planet's surface and get rid of the Withers. However, although many attempts have been made, they never managed to succeed. _

_Suggestions also have been made, including a portal, star gate, vehicles that can travel in space, and so on. These are all too expensive and we hope that someone might see this in the future and invent something to stop all this madness. _

_1514 Block Years Written by Slygan _

"Slygan…isn't that the great hero who can match Steve who lived about 500 years ago?" questioned Webley.

"Yes. He's the ancestor of the warrior Slyfox, who just died a few years ago," replied Peculiar. "Judging by what year this was written, it seems to be approximately 500 years ago."

They looked at each other for a while before roaring with laughter.

"Peculiar, we did it! Oh, how wonderful! This is definitely hope!" laughed Webley.

"Isn't that so? We did it! Hooray! In Notch's name!" shouted Peculiar. "All we have to do now is arrange these texts into order and deliver them into Diamond City. Our lord will then surely believe it."

They started to take the signs down and packed them in their inventory. After finishing the job, they settled down, drank some water and ate some bread.

"The thing is…Peculiar…how do we get out of here now?" asked Webley all of a sudden.

"Don't worry, that's for later. The important thing now is that we finally have some hope in successfully protecting Minecraftia!"


	12. Blade Tornado

The War Against Withers: Chapter 12: Blade Tornado

Character: Isabel Peculiar

Location: Barbeque Bay

The Withers have launched an attack on Barebeque Bay a few days after their attack on Skyhold. Will Isabel be able to protect Barbeque Bay?

"Ha-cha!" exclaimed Isabel as she threw a dagger at a Wither Skeleton's head, killing it. She danced around the wooden planks, slashing down many enemies.

On the other side of the bay stood Angus Eyeless, who stood in the midst of packs of wolves. "Attack!" he ordered. The wolves ran forward and strangled the Wither Skeletons with their teeth until they suffocated or bled to death.

Shiplord Hubert and Pirate Tinman were on the sea, battling ships carrying Withers ready for invasion.

"Taste tis cheesy baguette of doom!" shouted Hubert as he ultimately knocked the Withers out.

Wither Skeleton archers fired a field of arrows at Tinman, who blocked them with his metal arm with ease.

"How…dare you," he said in a robotic voice and punched them until their jaws shattered.

Although they were defeating a lot of Withers, they seemed to come endlessly, no matter what they did.

"I can't hold them off forever!" screamed Isabel as she loaded the cannons. Even TNT would not halt the invasion. A bunch of Skeletons climbed up the ladder and surrounded her before she knew it.

"Surrrrrrrrrender!" howled a tall Wither Skeleton, which she guessed to be the leader of the group.

"If you can't block this, I surrender," said Isabel as she balanced her iron sword horizontally.

"Mwhahahahaha! You arrrrrrrre outnumbered! Give up, I will definitely be able to block it, so will my men!"

"We'll see about that."

Isabel closed her eyes and muttered, "one sword wind…"

Suddenly she opened her eyes and shouted, "scythe!" She swung her sword once like lightning.

A sliver light emerged from her sword and sped through the air. Before the Wither Skeletons could realise what was happening, their blades had all being cut in half.

They screamed and ran away like cowards. Isabel again closed her eyes and said, "one sword wind…axe!"

This time, a vertical gust of silver air slashed down towards the Wither Skeletons before touching the ground and exploding. Her enemies went flying into the sea.

"I have the ability to create air that will slash through objects with my sword. Don't underestimate pirates," she whispered. "I better check how Angus is doing. He's blind, after all."

She ran towards where Angus should be. However, she didn't find him. Instead she found a large group of Wither Skeletons. In the middle of them was one that was huge, about 4 blocks tall. He wielded an iron axe the same size as himself. Isabel wondered how heavy it would be.

The group of Wither Skeletons glanced at her.

"Isabel Peculiar..." he said darkly. "Hello! 'Ow are you doing? Ready to die?"

"Taste my blade," she said before getting ready for a blade wind.

Suddenly, the Wither Skeleton jumped forward at abominable speeds that she did not expect from the unusual large size and presumed weight of the axe. She frantically lifted her sword and attempted to block the blow, which would of shattered her if it hit.

To her relief, her sword managed to take in the blow and survived, but it was not to last. The aftershock was the thing that most likely caused her blade to shatter into a million pieces.

"Muahahahahaha! 'Ow do you like that? Weak girl?" laughed the Wither Skeleton.

A shadow covered Isabel's face. "Don't…you dare…call me weak…" she whispered and ran forward.

"Non-sword wind…claws!" she screamed as she sliced her arm through the air. The results were amazing. Even without swords, she created a wind of a sword, although significantly weaker. It, however, did cause wounds to several Wither Skeletons standing in her way.

"'Ow dare you do that to my men?" yelled the axe-Wither. But it was too late. Isabel picked up not two, but three swords, taken from the wounded Wither Skeletons and equipped herself with them.

She held one sword in each hand, but the intruding thing was, the third sword went in her mouth. She clenched her teeth around the handle so the blade stretched out horizontally.

"I'm not used to using more than one sword. But prepare to die, axe holder! Three swords is my limit and no one has been able to block a blow from them yet," she whispered. The dark shadow from before covered more of her face now, as if it turned her into a monster in the dark.

"Wa…wait! You won't be able to…to slice through my axe; lets get some peace negotiations!" suggested a panicked Wither Skeleton axe-holder.

"Too bad. Die!" laughed Isabel. "Taste the power of the Dread Pirate Norris!"

"Three sword wind…tornado!"

A deadly swirling cylinder of sword air surged towards the axe-man, who tried to block it. But the wind simply broke through and ended his axe's life while dragging him into the air and cutting him to shreds.

"That was easy!" exclaimed Isabel. "Now, where's Angus?"

"You'll never…be able…to find him. We took…him away!" gasped a half dead Wither Skeleton who had been affected while Isabel cut their leader to death.

"Where have you taken him to?" asked Isabel, putting her blade on the Skeleton's throat. "Tell me or die!"

The Skeleton gasped, "That…ship over there." He pointed at a vessel on the sea and died.

Isabel smirked. "I hate these losers that spoil out information when their life is in danger." She ran towards the vessel, which was already leaving Barbeque Bay.

"Stop!" she yelled. "Three sword wind…jet stream!"

An expanding stream of deadly air gushed towards the ship before shredding the wood and creating a tunnel from one side to the other. It gave a mighty groan and leaned to one side.

"It's going to capsize at any minute!" thought Isabel. "I've got to get Angus out of there before he drowns!"


	13. Training

The War Against Withers: Chapter 13: Training

Character: EnderSteve

Location: Diamond City

While Barbeque Bay was under attack, EnderSteve was ready for his training at Diamond City.

EnderSteve yawned and woke up from bed. He looked at a clock hanging from the wall. It was only dawn.

"There's surplus time," he thought.

The Ender warrior got dressed, brushed his teeth, had breakfast, and equipped himself with weapons and armour. The hotel was devoid of people. He departed for Notch's palace. A slight breeze stirred the air and refreshed him from fatigue.

When he stepped inside the beautiful palace, Notch and Steve was already there, as he thought.

"Ah, you have arrived early, EnderSteve," exclaimed Steve. "Well then, your training shall start early then."

EnderSteve thought that they would start from something nice and easy. He was wrong, after Steve finished speaking; he tossed a dazzling sharp dagger at EnderSteve, who barely blocked it with his Staff.

"You must learn to block objects with magic. Repeat this spell when I throw the dagger again," said Steve. He announced a spell and got back into position with the dagger before throwing it.

EnderSteve uttered the spell when the dagger neared him. It didn't work properly, although the dagger wobbled and missed him by inches.

"EnderSteve, you must try to concentrate on the object you want the magic to affect."

Steve threw the dagger again. EnderSteve focused his sight on the weapon and said the spell. It slowed it down before it hit the ground with a clink.

"Better, but still, if the object was faster, it would have hit you. Throw the dagger at me and I'll show you how it's done."

"Are you sure, master?"

"Yes."

EnderSteve picked up the weapon and pegged it at Steve. The man focused so hard on the dagger that his eyeballs seemed to pop out. When he said the spell, it was as if it hit a brick wall. It simply struck something invisible and bounced off it.

"That' how you're supposed to do it," answered Steve.

They practised the art until midday before EnderSteve could do it quite well.

"You are talented, young man. But magic requires energy. Are you thirsty and hungry now?" asked Steve.

"Yes, master."

"Come to the garden with me," replied Steve.

When they sat down on the soft blanket of grass in the garden, Steve said, "One of the best ways to increase your energy is exercise and practising of magic itself."

Steve handed EnderSteve a book. "This book has all of the spells found to date, but if you don't articulate them properly, it wouldn't work. That is one of the most difficult things about magic."

"Are you thirsty? Are you hungry? Collect water from this apple tree's roots and make the apples ripe using magic," commanded Steve.

EnderSteve did not panic. He flipped through the spell book's content and eventually found a spell to suck water from plants. He muttered the spell and almost immediately droplets of water condensed out of the trees roots but was absorbed back into the soil.

"Well done! You said the spell correctly!" praised Steve. "But it was absorbed by the soil. How are you going to stop that?"

EnderSteve again flipped through the book and before long he was trying again. He said the same spell again before saying another. The water droplets rose and condensed in mid air to make a massive ball of water the size of his palm. The ball of water, however, was extremely muddy and did not look like it was drinkable.

EnderSteve must have thought that something similar would happen, for he murmured another spell. The mud all fell down the bottom of the sphere of water and dripped down back to the soil. The sphere was now as clear as a crystal and ready to drink. He kept the 'floating water' magic going and drank the water.

"It was the most purified water I've ever tasted!" remarked EnderSteve after finishing.

"Good work. You can extract water from other places too. If you're in the sky, you can use the clouds. If you're on a ship, you can use the sea," explained Steve. "Now what about the apples?"

EnderSteve thought about it for a while. "I've got it!" He said at last. "All you have to do is give an apple a huge amount of nutrition!"

Steve nodded. EnderSteve aimed his hand at a little green apple and worked on the spell. At first the apple was tiny and green, but soon bellowed up and went slowly to red. When EnderSteve thought it was ready, he released the spell and picked the apple off the tree.

Steve said, "Eat it. It's your job so you should get the reward. If you did the spell properly it would be delicious."

EnderSteve sunk his teeth into the fruit and took a piece out of it. He felt the taste before gulping it down.

"Master…this is the sweetest apple I've ever tasted!" he exclaimed.

"Well done. You really have a talent in this. The past students I've told would make at least four or five mistake per lesson."

Steve paused and looked at EnderSteve. There was a long silence. Steve suddenly said, "You like that nurse Shona, don't you?"

EnderSteve's face turned as red as a beetroot. "Master…please don't say that so loud. What if someone hears?"

"What if someone hears? Loving someone is no crime. Just don't let it interfere with your training," Steve replied. "I just read your mind then, so I basically looked at your memory, your thoughts, and your feelings."

"How did you do that?" asked EnderSteve.

Steve sighed. "We shall continue this tomorrow, come at the same time. For now, I want you to use some reserve energy to practice some easy spells at home. Do not flip beyond the 100-page mark in the spell book. Spells beyond there would tire you out and might kill you. And don't do anything stupid like setting things on fire. I don't want you to burn your hotel down. Am I clear?"

"Yes, master. I will see you tomorrow."


	14. Another Fortress Gone

The War Against Withers: Chapter 14: Another Fortress Gone

Character: Knight Peculiar

Location: The Desert

Soon after the first day of training for EnderSteve, Knight Peculiar and Webley dug out to the surface.

"Phew…we're out of here," sighed Knight Peculiar.

"It's night. Lets set up our tents," suggested Webley.

After finishing a quick dinner, they began to discuss how to get rid of the Withers.

"It mentioned that there is some way to get on the surface of the soul sand planet," said Webley.

Knight Peculiar grinned. "The message was written about 500 years ago. At that time Nether Portals weren't discovered yet. So, I suggest making a soul sand portal."

"Good idea! But there is something I don't understand. What is really the difference between Wither Skeletons and Withers? If Withers are more powerful why don't they just send a bunch of them here?" asked Webley.

"Withers are a type of machine that can be created. Just like Iron and Snow Golems, they drop something when they are defeated. That is the Nether Star, which we can use to boost our energy by creating beacons. So it is a downside if Withers are defeated because we'll become more powerful."

"I see. It's almost morning, we should go to bed."

They setting in bed and soon fell asleep.

The sound of flapping wings woke them up in the morning. They looked up to see a huge flock of birds flying in the sky. A person was crowded with them. Knight Peculiar and Webley instantly knew that the person was a magician for that he could fly. But they knew whom he really was when he called out a phrase.

"Swampy Awayyyyy!"

A grin of joy both appeared on their faces.

"Swampy!" called the Knight.

"Swampy Bogbeard!" repeated Webley. Swampy paid them no attention.

"He might be able to get us to Diamond City via flying! We can't let him go!" exclaimed Knight Peculiar before shooting an arrow upwards to try and get his attention. It wasn't intended to hit anything, but it penetrated a bird and sent it toppling downwards. Swampy saw this and tried to save the bird and descended, but the animal died. Swampy floated down to the duo.

"How dare you harm nature; man?" exclamined Swampy before whacking Webley on the head with a stick.

"Ow, ow, stop it! We had no means to do that!" yelled Webley.

"Ahem. Please excuse me, Swampy. We only wanted to get your attention," explained the Knight.

"So you shot a beloved bird down? How dare you; man," argued Swampy.

"We were not intending to hit the bird. We only wanted to get an arrow past you to get your attention!"

Swampy fell silent before saying "Fine, what do you want me for; man? Have you been harming the trees on the way here?"

"We didn't. But listen Swampy, can you get us to Diamond City?"

"Yes, I can fly you there. But do you live in that Verigan's Hold place; man?"

"Yes. What happened?"

"It's destroyed and is infested with Wither Skeletons. You might want to have a look; man!"

"What? How did you know?"

"I was looking for herbs this morning and when I flew over it I saw that it was destroyed."

"We have to retake it, Peculiar!" cried Webley.

The knight ignored him and asked Swampy, "Is it actually destroyed? By destroyed, I mean that the walls have fallen and the rocks crushed."

"Yes; man. Retaking it might save it from Wither Skeletons, but the tower won't heal."

"It's no use, Webley. The top priority mission now is to go to Diamond City.

"But…"

"Look, Webley. Saving Verigan's Hold won't save Minecraftia."

Webley sighed and nodded. "Swampy, please take us to Diamond City. By the way, aren't you fighting for this land?"

"I would rather collect herbs and get enough energy before I join the army. I think it's about time. I was also just preparing to go to Diamond City to take down the Wither Skeletons who are destroying the forests; man! Come close to me, I'll fly you people to Diamond City!"

As they neared Swampy, he made a meditating sound of 'ummmmmmmmmm' and then they soared into the air. Wind rushed past their ears and at first, Knight Peculiar was slightly frightened but soon began to look at the surroundings.

On the ground was just a golden sheet of baking sand at first, but soon Verigan's Hold came into view. It didn't look anything like Verigan's Hold anymore. It was now no more than a crumbling abandoned tower about to fall at any second.

Knight Peculiar's heart clenched up. "I'm so sorry, Adaephon, father, and grandfather. I promise I will rebuild it when this war is finished," he thought.

After going beyond The Wall, there were a lot more activity. Some minor battles were raging in the distance. Smoke from burning wood churned and gave the world an eerie look.

"How dare they harm the trees! I'm going down to stop them; man!" yelled Swampy.

"No, please. It won't do any good. I have something very important to deliver to Diamond City!" replied Peculiar.

Swampy agreed with him after hesitating. With his help, Diamond City came into view after a few hours.

"This is it," whispered Knight Peculiar.

"Here we go," replied Webley.

"Let us save the trees!" shouted Swampy.

As they neared the first gate – the Iron Gate, the guards saw them and panicked after guessing they were enemies. They fired a wave of arrows and sounded the alarm.

"Swampy, it's too dangerous. We'll get shot down. Land in front of the Iron Gate. From here, we must walk on foot," announced Knight Peculiar.


	15. The Evil Plan

The War Against Withers: Chapter 15: The Evil Plan

Location: Soul Sand Planet, Wither Headquarters

Character: Mystery Sphere, Wither Fear, Wither Panic

Meanwhile on the Soul Sand Planet…

An immensely dark swirling sphere twice as big as a normal Minecraftian stood on a throne in a hall. The hall consisted of a smooth marble floor, a painted ceiling 20 blocks above the ground, and carvings on massive cylinder poles, presumable to support the building. It was completely devoid of light except for a faint glow the sphere gave off.

Wither Skeletons guarded the entrance to the outside world. On the left side of the hall were three Wither Skeletons, both muscular, tall, and were like commanders of armies. The right side was the same. The held different weapons and had different looks.

The dark sphere's light shone brighter for a few seconds before two beams of white light emerged from the inside and wavered, spilling patterns throughout the area. Something was inside the sphere.

Whatever inside talked then. It had a voice that was extremely difficult to describe. It seemed to inhale or exhale and talk at the same time. It was so deep that you can barely recognise it.

"Left column…step aside!"

The left columns of Wither Skeletons sidestepped towards the centre of the hall. Their bodies and weapons were clearer now.

The Wither Skeleton closest to the entrance was as skinny as a stick. It wore a hood and a chest plate with a carving of a skull. On its waist was a diamond rapier as tall as the Wither Skeleton itself.

The second one in line didn't wear a hood but wore a cloak. Unlike the others, this one had hair, and it was as if it blew in the wind all day because it all leaned to one side. This one was quite unique for there were three quivers stuffed with arrows on its back and two on its waist. A bow was half hidden in the cloak.

The one closest to the sphere was even more intruding. It presumably suffered many injuries, for one arm and one leg were missing. A huge cut on its head blinded one eye. But the creature seemed to have the ability to levitate in mid air. It also had amazing sized muscles for its body. It was shorter than the others. But for some reason it still looked like it was quite strong.

The sphere studied them before calling the right side to step towards the centre.

The one closest to the entrance also wore a chest plate with a carving of a skull, the same to the one on the left. It yielded a hammer covered with spikes.

The second one had giant fists with coatings of metal. It also held a shield that was so thick, large and heavy that it would be impossible for normal people to carry.

The third one had huge broad shoulders and no visible nose. It carried a lance on its back and wore knight armour. Every time it moved, the metal armour would rattle.

The sphere spoke again. "Ever since that Notch defeated me a century ago, I want revenge; I dream of killing him. Isn't that right? My commanders of my Wither armies?"

"Yes, master!" they roared altogether.

"He casted magic onto my body and now I have to carry this burden everywhere! Even after 100 years of resting and reviving in this sphere, it still hurts like crazy when I leave it. Isn't that right?"

"Yes!" they roared again.

"I cannot believe my nephew was the one that sent me toppling off my reign! I want to kill them both!"

"We will succeed, master!"

"Those Minecraftians are putting up a lot of resistance. I need to send two of you people down to Minecraftia. When you have killed most people and surrounded Diamond City, I will come and take over the land once and for all!"

"I volunteer!" said every Wither Skeleton suddenly.

The one in the sphere just laughed. "I do not need the strongest to go down. Fear and Panic, although you are the weakest, I'm sure you two will be able to defeat them with ease. Do you want to go to Minecraftia?"

"I accept!" cried the one with the rapier.

"I accept as well!" cried the one with the hammer.

"Good…I will wait for the news that you two have taken down everyone."

Wither Fear and Wither Panic began to make their move to the outside. The sphere of darkness and the others followed. Once outside, they glared at the cube land that stood in the midst of space. It was about the size of an orange from their point of view.

They could see The End on one side of the sphere and the Nether in the middle with The Void in between. The Overworld stood opposite of the End.

"Minecraftia…the perfect place! It will belong to me now! Ahahahahahahaha!"

The rest of the people chuckled with the evil inside the sphere.

"Do you need me to teleport you two there?" the evil asked Panic and Fear.

"I think we can manage it ourselves, master," replied Fear, the one with the rapier.

Following this, the two Wither Skeletons stood with their legs apart. Air began to swirl around them and soon they became miniature tornados. In fact, the air began to swirl so fast that it glowed orange. They were more meteors now.

The two Wither Skeletons soon zoomed off the ground and surged towards The Overworld faster than rockets. They maintained the bright glow. If anyone else were to see them, they would think that it was two meteors.

Many Wither Skeleton soldiers crowded around just to see the amazing process happen.

"Stop standing here! Back to work!" the sphere commanded the Wither Skeletons, who dared not disobey.

A person lifted himself from the dark sphere and stepped onto the Soul Sand.

"Finally…Minecraftia will be mine after 100 years of waiting!"

It was Notch's brother – Herobrine.


	16. The Burning

The War Against Withers: Chapter 16: The Burning

Character: Isabel Peculiar

Location: Barbeque Bay

A few hours earlier…

Isabel swam at full speed towards the sinking ship, which Angus was trapped in. It began to slant when she reached it. As fast as lightning, she bolted around the deck, desperately searching for Angus but to no avail.

"Angus, where are you?" she called.

There was no answer.

She ran into the inside of the ship and called again.

"Is Angus really in here?" she thought.

Just then, the wooden side of the vessel exploded and someone flew out onto the floor.

"Isabel!" the person shouted.

At first Isabel thought it was a Wither Skeleton, but soon realised it was Pirate Tinman.

"Tinman! Have you seen Angus?" she asked.

"Angus? No I haven't. But Barbeque Bay is on fire! The Wither Skeletons are firing TNT on their warships!"

"What? That's not good. That Shiplord can't handle it all by himself! We need to find Angus, and fast!"

Isabel tried to calm herself down but her heart was pounding. Seawater was already up to their upper legs. She suddenly remembered something the robot could do.

"Tinman!" she screamed above the sound of the water, "Use your thermal sensors!"

"Impressive idea. I will try," exclaimed Tinman.

There was a short silence as Tinman examined the surroundings of the ship with the sensors hidden within his eyes.

"I've got it! Angus is one floor below us. It's probably filled with water there, which is the reason why he can't hear us!"

"I've got it under control!" yelled Isabel as she took out the wooden planks with her axe. She dived into the water but could not see much due to poor light conditions.

In complete desperation, she cast a spell. "Give Isabel Peculiar Glowstone Block 5!"

Instantly her hand shone of light from the blocks. Isabel placed one down and watched as it brightened her surroundings surprisingly well.

But there was still no sign of Angus.

Placing more Glowstone blocks down, Isabel was running out of air when she saw a shadowy figure floating in the water. It was Angus.

Isabel gave a short sigh of relief, but the danger wasn't over yet. She swam towards her friend. When she got closer, she was horrified to see that he was stuck to the ship via chains. Angus was drowning and was unconscious.

"So that's why he couldn't escape by himself!" she thought.

Unsheathing her sword, she sliced the chains apart and felt Angus' pulse, which was luckily still there. Later, she dragged him out of the water where the hole that she took out was.

Tinman was still standing there, and he helped them both escape the sinking ship. They jumped into the sea and looked towards Barbeque Bay. What they saw was not Barbeque Bay anymore. The place was bursting with flames and a massive effort would be needed if the fire were to be extinguished. Arrows and TNT were flying everywhere and large ships with flags of a Wither's face were looming in the distance.

The sight made Isabel remember something that happened a few years ago when there was a huge war with Israphel. She remembered Jock Fireblast, that notorious pirate for burning down the bay to ruins, and two heroes who managed to kill the fiend.

"I wish they were here…those heroes…"

Before they could do anything else, a wave of TNT came flying in from nowhere and created a huge explosion on a Wither ship. Isabel squinted towards the distance, where the TNT flew out. As the smoke lifted, she saw several ships, which were obviously not the ones the Wither Skeletons controlled. She looked to see the flags and grinned upon seeing a Dwarven face with a colossal ginger beard.

"Finally you're here, Honeydew. We needed backup," she thought.

The Dwarven ships closed in on the bay as they continued to fire TNT ceaselessly. Isabel and the others also made their way to the bay before finding Shiplord Hubert surrounded by a crowd of Wither Skeletons.

Given new strength due to the arrival of the Dwarves, Isabel and Tinman left Angus on the ground and sprinted ahead towards their enemies.

"Attack!" roared Isabel. "One sword wind…meteorite!"

A diagonal beam of light shot through the air and sent enemies flying when it touched the ground.

"Strong fist punch!" yelled Tinman. He punched a Wither Skeleton so hard that it created a shockwave and sent more enemies flying.

After successfully rescuing Shiplord Hubert from the crowd, they gathered buckets of water to put out the fire and hid Angus in the dormitory.

But the fire was spreading fast indeed. It was only when Honeydew and the Dwarves noticed the fire and helped them that they were able to bring it under control. The Dwarves gave them a huge help, and they successfully sunk many Wither Skeleton warships. The leftover of the enemies retreated away.

After a few hours the fire was finally put out.

"The Withers won't be attacking soon," said Honeydew after finally giving a greeting to everyone.

"Yes. All we have to do now is to repair the damage," exclaimed Isabel.

Night was closing in, so they decided to have a short break. But a panicking Dwarf interrupted them.

"C…c…commander! The newest newspaper has been published!" he panted.

"And what of it?" asked Honeydew.

"There…there's actually two bad news."

"Look, calm down and tell us."

The Dwarf looked as if a cat had his tongue for a while, but he finally shouted out the news.

"The first one is – Skyhold likely to fall under Wither pressure and the second one is – Sand Fortress – Verigan's Hold's collapse!"

"What?" everyone screamed simultaneously.

"We need to help Skyhold!" screamed one Dwarf.

"We don't have the blasted time! It's too late. Lets just hope Xephos, Rory, Moira and the Skylords can win," yelled Honeydew.

"They have many people there. Why would it end up like this?" said a frustrated Isabel.

"I don't have the foggiest idea, Isabel," sighed Honeydew.


	17. Fall of Skyhold

The War Against Withers: Chapter 17: Fall of Skyhold

Character: Xephos

Location: Skyhold

At the same time Wither Fear and Wither Panic left the Soul Sand planet; the Withers launched a massive strike on Skyhold that put it well under pressure…

Xephos' vision was becoming blurry. His muscles ached and his throat burned. Rory continued to fight alongside him.

Rory slashed down a Wither Skeleton. "What I don't understand is…why can these bastards make us struggle like this when there are so many of us here?" he shouted above the clanking of weapons.

Xephos panted for breath. "Number one; because Skyhold covers a huge area. Number two; Skyhold is in the sky, making it easier for them to surround us. Number three; because they really want Skyhold taken down so they are attacking at full strength."

"But why?" Rory bellowed.

"Skyhold is a key defence system in Minecraftia."

All of a sudden, there was a huge explosion from afar near the Trial of Fire.

"What was that?" yelled Xephos.

"The supply of TNT has arrived and the Withers are using it to blow up this place," someone shouted behind them.

"Moira!" said Rory, turning towards her.

A Wither Skeleton sneaked up behind Moira, but she noticed it and stabbed it in its chest without even looking.

"We won't be able to defend for much longer. I suggest we evacuate or pull Skyhold out of this using its propulsion system."

Xephos hesitated. "But then…I promised Lomadia I will try my best to defend this place."

"Well then you can make another promise. You can promise her that you will win this war alongside everyone in Minecraftia," exclaimed Moira. "Her soul will be happy by the time we win."

Xephos was surprised. "You knew she died?"

Moira nodded, but before she could say anything, a loud beeping alarm went off.

"What's happening?" screamed Rory.

Xephos thought for a moment. "It's the alarm, which means that something is wrong with the machines in Skyhold. Come to the control room, Rory. Moira, please defend here for a while, we'll be back."

"No problems."

Rory and Xephos made their way to the control room, which was the highest point on Skyhold. As they went in the room, Xephos studied the surroundings. Smoke was rising, fires were burning, arrows were flying and every now and then TNT would explode.

He held onto his anger and checked up on everything via the computers. He screamed when he saw something terrible show up on the screen.

"What's happening?" asked Rory.

"It's the coolants for the propulsion system…they've dried up! The Withers probably sabotaged them!"

"What will that cause?"

"It's a system to prevent it from getting too hot and exploding. If we don't do something, Skyhold will explode, along with everyone!"

Rory gulped. "How long do we have before that happens?"

Xephos sighed. "We have ten minutes."

Rory climbed out of the control room and studied his surroundings.

"It's true! The Withers are evacuating!" he exclaimed.

"I can use a spell to get some ice and buckets of water to try and cool it down," sighed Xephos. "Tell everyone to get the airships and stand by outside Skyhold. Also, tell them to be careful of Withers."

"What about you?"

"Look, Rory. I don't have much of a chance of succeeding. It's better for me to die then for everyone to die."

"Isn't there any other way of getting water to the coolants instead of pouring it in?"

Xephos shook his head. "There are pipes to extract water from the sea below. But I checked on it just then and found that it was sabotaged as well. Now leave and tell everyone."

Rory hesitated but nodded and left the control room.

Xephos pressed a button on the computer. A secret entrance was revealed, leading down towards the coolants. He immediately felt a blast of heat surge up.

As he climbed down the ladder, he used a spell to give him some ice and buckets of water. At the bottom of the ladder was a small hall that was scorching hot. It was, in fact, so hot that the metal beside him was turning red. Wiping away sweat, he poured a bucket of water down. The second it touched the burning metal ground, a huge clump of steam rose and made him choke.

Nonetheless, it successfully cooled a portion down and Xephos grinned with relief. But the danger wasn't over yet. From what he knew, he was in a tunnel leading to one of the four coolants. The hall had four tunnels. His main objective was to cool down the coolant. But if he were to not cool down the tunnel first, it would become too hot for him to continue, as it gets warmer closer to the coolant. Groaning with frustration, he poured more water down.

When he finally reached a clearing, it became clear that the coolant was massive. It was a sphere, which was roughly twenty blocks in diameter.

He looked at his clock. He still had eight minutes to spare. Suddenly an idea popped up in his head. "Why don't I just pour the water on the ceiling and let if run down like a waterfall?"

He used the ability of flight to get onto the ceiling and started to pour water down. The idea worked perfectly. Runnels of water surged downwards and took away the heat. Xephos repeated the act.

When he finally finished filling most of the coolant with water, he glanced at his clock again. He only had five minutes to spare.

"I'm not going to make it. The most I can do is two coolants. The system needs all of its coolants restored. Is this the end of Skyhold and me? But I can't give up now," he thought and headed for one of the tunnels towards another coolant.

"Lomadia, I have failed you. But please forgive me. I promise I will defeat the Withers and restore Minecraftia to its former glory."


	18. Lurking Danger

The War Against Withers: Chapter 18: Lurking Danger

Location: Diamond City

Character: EnderSteve, Knight Peculiar

Earlier that day when EnderSteve was going through the second day of his training…

"Come on! If you are this slow, you won't be able to dodge flying objects easily!" shouted Steve. "You need to learn the ability of speed sidestepping!"

Steve was vigorously firing arrows at EnderSteve, who tried his best to sidestep them.

"Arrows can come from any direction!" yelled Steve, who fired an arrow at EnderSteve's head.

EnderSteve ducked and braced for impact as the arrow stripped away some of his hair. He tried his best, but in the end, he collapsed onto the floor, heaving for air.

"Get up! It's for your own good!"

"Master…I literally cannot…"

"Magical blasts come much faster than arrows. If you can't even dodge arrows, you're in serious trouble."

"I can block magical blasts."

Steve glared at EnderSteve. "Blocking isn't the best way. If a blast is too powerful, your shield will break and it will send you flying."

Steve threw the bow and arrow towards EnderSteve. "I'll show you what really is speed sidestepping."

EnderSteve got up and fired one arrow at Steve. Who disappeared somewhere in his point of view. He looked around for him but couldn't find Steve.

"Behind you!" said Steve suddenly.

EnderSteve spun around and just managed to sidestep a punch Steve tried to give him. He grinned at his good result, but Steve disappeared again.

"Why can't I see him? Is he teleporting?"

Before he could look around. Steve appeared in front of him and landed a hard punch to the stomach.

"Oh my Notch…argh…"

"I…wasn't teleporting. I was speed sidestepping, you couldn't see me because you can't recognise me by the speed I was going at."

"Could anyone else possibly see you then?"

"Notch definitely did. The best way to see a fast moving object is to practise eyesight. So, in other words, if you can see every intricate detail of an arrow streaming in mid-air, you can likely see me. But I'm telling you, Notch can move faster than me."

EnderSteve gasped. "Amazing!"

They were about to continue their lesson when an alarm sounded in the distance. It startled everyone, including Notch.

A young tall soldier wearing full iron armour bolted into the throne room.

"Lord, something or someone is closing in the iron gate via flying!" he spluttered.

"Is it a Wither or something?" asked Notch.

"EnderSteve, I send you to see what is happening. But you might want to get your gear in case it's an enemy."

"Yes master!"

EnderSteve remembered a spell he read about last night. It was a spell to teleport objects from one place to another. He quickly uttered a few words and his armour and Ender Staff arrived in front of him.

"I'm impressed," said Steve, grinning.

From there, he geared up and ran outside the room. There were cries in the distance and the alarm was still sounding. But there were no sounds of weapons clashing and was quite peaceful.

EnderSteve looked at the soldier who reported the situation.

"I'll teleport you and me there," he said. The soldier agreed.

EnderSteve muttered a spell and within seconds a cylinder of light surrounded them and they were gone in a flicker.

EndserSteve dropped to the ground near the Iron Gate. Defending soldiers saw him and greeted the warrior with both fear and respect. He asked of the situation.

"A few minutes earlier, someone, no, some people who has the ability of flight entered our zone. We regarded them as enemies so we are currently firing arrows to prevent them from landing," one archer explained and pointed towards some figures flying outside the city.

EnderSteve squinted at the people. After a short silence, he snapped his eyes open and caught the archer by the collar.

"Stop the arrows, now! Don't you know who one of them is?" commanded EnderSteve.

The archer panicked at a furious EnderSteve and stopped the waves of arrows. The flying figures managed to land in front of him.

"My Notch! Those arrows were missing and going into the trees; man. Don't harm the trees; man!" called a person dressed in green.

EnderSteve grinned. "Welcome to Diamond City, Swampy Bogbeard. He looked at the two others. Welcome as well to Knight Peculiar and Professor Webley Grizwold."

The soldiers discussed silently of the heroic acts the trio had once achieved during the war with Israphel.

Knight Peculiar groaned. "By golly, won't your men get some glasses? I haven't been this angry in years!"

The archers knelt down and apologized. Knight Peculiar's anger lifted slightly. "We need to get Webley to hospital. His arm has been penetrated by an arrow."

Some archers helped Webley get up and carried him away.

"My apologies. Knight Peculiar and Swampy Bogbeard."

Before they could continue, two meteors come streaming down from the skies and created a huge explosion when they collided with the Gold Gate, the one behind the Iron Gate and the second line of defence for Diamond City.

Everyone rushed forward to encounter whatever landed. EnderSteve simply jumped up the Gold Gate's walls, followed by Knight Peculiar. The heat and smoke blinded and choked them temporarily but it soon began to lift.

The meteorites were rough, dark stone spheres, occasionally flickering with flames.

As the soldiers from both defence positions came to investigate, the spheres cracked and inside emerged two unique Wither Skeletons, one for each sphere. The soldiers all got into positions.

One soldier decided to go ahead and attack a Wither Skeleton, who held a metal hammer. But before he could even lay a finger on it, the Wither Skeleton simply held out a palm towards the soldier. Everyone was about to rush forward and help him, but before they could do so, an invisible shockwave blasted him into a building. Civilians stared with panic.

"I am Wither Panic and this is Wither Fear. We want to take over Diamond City and wait for our master," introduced the one with the hammer.


	19. Defending Mistral

The War Against Withers: Chapter 19: Defending Mistral

Character: Fumblemore

Location: Mistral City

A few days earlier, an army of Wither Skeletons surrounded Mistral City. Will our heroes be able to defend it?

"Abracadabra!" shouted Fumblemore above the roar of the Wither Skeletons attacking Mistral City. A plume of flame swiped towards a line of Wither Skeletons, burning them to ashes.

Daisy Duke came up to Fumblemore, panting from all the stress.

"Old wizard, aren't Wither Skeletons vulnerable to fire?"

"Excuse me? I can't hear you!"

Daisy groaned and shouted in his ear. "I said…why are Wither Skeletons vulnerable to fire when they when they shouldn't be?"

"Oh, young lady. Wither Skeletons are vulnerable to magical fire. Magical fires are different from normal fires. If a flint and steel is spawned in from magic and not crafted, then the fire it creates would also be magical!"

Daisy parried a Wither Skeleton's blow and beheaded it. "I better check on the defences!"

A soldier wearing iron armour limped up to them. "The Withers have breached our defences to the east!" he wailed and collapsed.

Daisy was startled, after telling Fumblemore to stay where he was, she ran towards the streets towards the east and horrifically found that street-to-street fighting was in progress. Mistral City's soldiers were retreating slowly under the pressure. As she was about to go forward and attack, spinning discs came flying in from behind her and sliced wounds on the Wither Skeletons. She spun around to see Father Braeburn.

"Everyone's changed…this war has made almost everyone get the ability to fight," she sighed.

"Daisy Duke, those Withers have crossed our moats and climbed up our exterior walls!" exclaimed Father Braeburn.

"We need to recover them! This fighting has been very tense since a few days ago when they surrounded us, we can't let Mistral fall!"

As they were struggling to counterattack with the Mistral City guards, Fumblemore was on the city's west wall, spawning and launching TNT with ease. The Wither Skeletons were able to lay cobblestone bridges across the moats and ladders up the walls. The TNT was just enough to stop them on their tracks. But it was not to last.

"Wither!" screamed a soldier as the devilish flying creature coming in from the sunset bombed the TNT launchers. Fumblemore threw the guards buckets of milk.

"Careful of it's Wither effects!" he yelled above the sound of exploding objects. "Shoot it down with arrows!"

The guards got into position and fired a wave of arrows which most of it successfully hit the Wither, causing it to roar with pain and anger. Fumblemore was glad that Notch gave him a potion to improve his thought and memory a month ago, or he would not be able to command the guards.

As the Wither closed in on the group of defenders, the soldiers panicked and ran away while Fumblemore stood his ground.

"Well then…take this!" he shouted and charged towards the Wither Skeleton with his wand held out in front of him. Air began to get sucked to the wand before getting released into a jet that was basically a bullet. The Wither flew up and dodged it.

"Notch dammit!" muttered Fumblemore.

Holding out his wand again, he spawned in a diamond sword and put the wand to his left hand and the sword to his right.

"Take this!" he screamed and flew upwards towards the floating Wither, which was slow to react. Fumblemore landed his sword on the body of the Wither, but the scales were even harder than his sword and he only managed to make a dent.

Trying again, he attempted to slice the Wither's centre head, but this time it moved to the left the wizard only ended up cutting air. Using the hand with his wand, he used a spell to release a handful of arrows flying towards his enemy. However, the Wither made a crimson spinning shield to protect it from arrows, which Fumblemore expected to happen.

Now it was the Wither's turn to attack, launching three 'head' bombs at the same time, Fumblemore blocked one with his sword and barely managed to dodge the others. He glared down at Mistral, which the east side burned with flames and echoed with war cries. Smoke was rising everywhere and his tower had a huge hole blown in it already. Arrows were surging through the air and TNT was launched to protect the city. A ring of Wither Skeletons surrounded the city and was crossing the moats ceaselessly.

"I must defeat this Wither!" thought Fumblemore as he tried to attack it again but was blown back by a Wither head. Losing control of himself, he fell towards the ground.

Meanwhile, the situation for Daisy and Braeburn was getting ever more severe. The Wither Skeletons were destroying everything they could, houses were burning to ruins and supplies were stolen. The anger was boiling inside everyone, but they could do little to stop the attack.

Just then, a figure dropped from the sky landed in the Pool of Life. It was a male Minecraftian who started to sprint towards Daisy and Braeburn. He held a thick metal bar and he was probably in his late-forties.

"Daisy! I'm coming! Terrorvale is safe and I've come to aid you!" he called.

Daisy realised who it was. "Father! You're here! Please, help us!"

Father Braeburn was quite shocked. "That's your father?"

As the figure got closer, it was seen that he had a long vertical scar on the left side of his face and snow white hair. He was completely gold and shone from the light from the sunset. Raising his golden sword, he cut down several Wither Skeletons.

"Daisy, my daughter, I've come to aid you, everyone else, and Mistral City!"


	20. The Traitor

The War Against Withers: Chapter 20: The Traitor

Character: Xephos

Location: Skyhold

Half an hour earlier at Skyhold…

Xephos was vigorously pouring water and placing ice everywhere, but it did little effect to stop the propulsion system of Skyhold to burn up. He glanced at his clock; he only had two minutes to spare. Luckily he had finished working on the second coolant so the explosion would be reduced. It was even hotter now and was getting unbearable in the tunnel.

Xephos hesitated and remembered what he had promised Lomadia. "I can't save Skyhold, therefore I must survive and show Lomadia that we will win this war."

He waded through the water towards the exit and he could tell he wasn't going to make it in time. When he reached the ladder and climbed out of the control room, his heart sank when he saw what Skyhold looked like now. Everywhere was burning with flames and plumes of smoke were ascending into the atmosphere, making the sky grey. The Trial of Life was gone, having collapsed into the sea below. Xephos only had one minute to spare.

He searched around for an airship, but there were none. The Skylords and the Dwarves had left.

"At least they're saved," thought Xephos. He sat down on the sandstone and waited for Skyhold to explode, for he was hopeless now. Suddenly a huge bang near where he was on the mainland took place, blasting stone and wooden shreds everywhere. It wouldn't be long before Xephos was blown up as well.

Suddenly his vision became blurry and when he looked up, it was as if he was in a light tunnel leading somewhere. Then, in a fraction of a second he landed on the deck of an airship south of the landing and take-off platform of Skyhold. He looked up to see a smiling Lysander standing there.

"Teleport Xephos to Lysander," he whispered and helped Xephos up.

"I was not expecting someone to save me like that!" exclaimed Xephos. "Well done Lysander, I owe you one."

"I was waiting for the moment Skyhold started to explode as it means that the fortress will definitely fall. So that's the time to teleport you here."

An absolute colossal explosion, possibly the biggest one so far in Minecraftia's history startled all the airships, the ones that the other Skylords and Dwarves were in. Skyhold was blown apart. The mainland broke into two and made a tsunami when it hit the sea below. Evacuating Wither Skeletons cried with joy the fortress fell. Each Trial and the landing platform went flying in a different direction and broke apart when it hit the sea.

Xephos glared with anger. "I'm unable to protect Skyhold," he sighed.

"It's not all your fault," said Lysander. "Skyold does not all belong to you. It's everyone's responsibility."

A small-scale explosion nearby on an airship again interrupted them. Lysander and Xephos stared at the flaming airship.

"Whose airship is that?" questioned Xephos. "And why is it on fire?"

Lysander gulped. "That's Khambaita's airship, and from the angle that it was flaming, it wasn't the Withers that attacked it, for it would be flaming from below. It was another airship that attacked it!"

"That's impossible! Doesn't that mean the Withers took over an airship?" asked Xephos.

A block of TNT from an airship diagonally below them blew up the back of their airship and shook them to the left, nearly causing them to fall overboard.

Xephos grabbed onto a fencepost. "Lysander!" he screamed above the sound of the explosion. "Try to extinguish the fire. I need to stop whoever is attacking us!"

"Yes sir!" yelled Lysander before rushing to the controls, balancing the airship and getting buckets of water. Smoke was already rising and the fire was spreading.

Xephos measured the angle the TNT came in before looking angrily at an airship diagonally below them, who he thought fired it.

"Is it you who fired the TNT?" shouted Xephos.

There was a short silence before a foreign voice yelled back. "Yes!"

Xephos then looked back at Lysander, who was desperately trying to extinguish the flames. "Luckily the airship has not been hit in the helium balloon, otherwise we would be falling into the sea below!" thought Xephos. He suddenly remembered Khambaita and looked towards her airship.

One of Khambaita's airship's helium balloons has popped, spilling helium gas everywhere and causing the flames to burn with even more heat. The airship was slowly falling into the sea.

But Xephos didn't have time to worry about her. He had to face a great enemy at the very moment.

He sprinted to the airship's cannon, loaded it with TNT, and fired one shot towards the other airship. He wasn't very good at aiming, for the TNT went wide to the right. He did not give up, however, and loaded another TNT cannon.

The other airship also fired another shot, which Xephos knew would hit their helium balloon. Whoever was firing the TNT was a sniper. But before it even fired, Xephos thought something similar would come and was ready for it. He could use magic, and he launched a lightning bolt as straight as the horizon towards the flying TNT. A split second later, it exploded in mid-air, creating a gust of wind.

Xephos fired another block of TNT, which missed again, but not by much. The other airship's response startled him, for he did not expect it. It was closing in on their airship, wanting to ram it!

Xephos wiped away his sweat. His airship was damaged more than the other one, and if it was to be rammed, it wouldn't stand a chance. Xephos bolted to the controls and turned the steering wheel, attempting to dodge the other airship.

Their enemy tried to follow what Xephos was doing, but due to its high-speed approach, it failed to make much of a difference in direction and missed their vehicle by inches.

Xephos glared to see who was controlling that airship. He didn't expect it to be a Wither Skeleton. And sure enough, in the cockpit, smirking at them was a Skylord. It was Vitellus.


End file.
